A seriously cool study is coming out later this year in Psychological
Science on the
benefits of awe [pdf].

Awe, which describes a "feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear
or wonder" and comes from the old Norse word for "terror," seems
like a strange subject for research, but its benefits are clear.

Lead author Melanie Rudd of Stanford University
concluded that awe expands people's perception of time, enhances well-being and
causes people to behave more altruistically and less materialistically.

How did they stimulate awe? Rudd explained over email:

The methods that were the most effective at stimulating awe were those that
presented participants with a “new” awe experience (i.e., having participants
watch the awe-eliciting commercial). Remembering a past awe-eliciting
experience and reading about an imaginary awe-eliciting experience (i.e., the
short story) also elicited awe, but relatively less compared to when
participants experienced a “fresh” and “real” awe experience.

How can we stimulate awe and its benefits in our daily life? Rudd explains:

There are two things needed for a true awe experience: 1) Perceptual
vastness (i.e., you need to perceive that you’ve encountered something vast in
number, size, scope, complexity, or social bearing) and 2) A need for
accommodation (i.e., you must feel that you need to revise or update your mental
structures/the way you think/your understanding of the world in order to
understand the perceptually vast thing/stimuli). So anything you experience in
daily life that leads you to experience these two things can stimulate awe and
its benefits. And the things that elicit these two things and, as a result,
awe, can differ from person to person. However, there are some things that seem
to more frequently elicit awe—experiencing nature, being exposed to art or
music, and observing the accomplishments of others. Things like social
interactions and personal accomplishments seem to be less likely to elicit awe.
And I imagine that just putting yourself in new situations, in new places, and
encountering new people would increase your chances of experiencing awe.